Airhead | Bakugo Katsuki

Chapter Four

The sun set over the mountains behind U.A. The warm and sunny day shifting into its cooler counterpart. The school had emptied hours ago, leaving few of its staff behind and one lost girl.

"And for this equation? I just have to put the thingy over-" Maimi said, looking down at the numerous worksheets Aizawa had given her to practice. She clutched the pencil, her hand hovering over the page as she tried to grasp the concept he taught her.

"Not 'thingy', it's x."

"Yeah, yeah, that. I just have to put x over what we just worked out?"

"Yes."

She smiled, scribbling down both the formula and answer for the question. Aizawa grimaced as she did so, watching as her handwriting only declined with each equation. He'd always heard Bakugo yell at her for it in class, how her writing mimicked one of a child's but he never quite believed it till now.

"Stop pressing so hard on the page."

Her hand paused and she looked up at her teacher, "Why?"

"It'll be neater if you press gently, use a light hand as you do with your quirk."

She mouthed an 'o' and looked back to her writing. Maimi had never thought of her handwriting to be poor, but then again, it wasn't as if anyone ever told her otherwise, at least not before U.A.

Maimi held her pencil over the paper and as she lowered it, she furrowed her eyebrows. She held her breath as the pencil glided across the page, desperate to appease her teacher as he watched her.

"You don't need to concentrate that much, Watanabe. It's just writing." He scolded, getting up from his seat to reach for a new piece of paper.

Aizawa reached over his desk, his hand moving past Maimi's head as he grabbed the paper. She dropped the pencil and blinked. Then, blinked again. Maimi sat upright and didn't look back to meet her teacher's eye.

"Yes sir."

He narrowed his eyes, noting how she had stiffened entirely. Maimi didn't move from her position and still kept her eyes down at the page, blinking slowly.

"Hurry up, Watanabe, I'm sure you need to get home at some point."

Maimi turned to him and pulled a smile. She nodded and reclaimed the slouched position she had before. Her hand reached for the pencil and Aizawa watched as she began to write again. He expected her sloppy handwriting or worse; writing so light, it would be unreadable.

"I'm done!" She turned to him and handed him the page. Maimi quickly packed all her pens and pencils into her pencil case before tossing it into her bag. She looked to the clock on the wall and stared blankly at it. Aizawa was right, she did need to get home.

"Alright, I'll see you after school tomorrow. Don't be late again."

She turned to him and flashed him a grin. Her eyes closed for just a second as a sweet and short laugh escaped past her smile. Maimi tugged her backpack over her shoulder and gave her mentor a wave.

"Thank you for today, sir! See you tomorrow!"

He nodded, turning away as she ran off. He didn't even bother to remind her not to run in the halls, Aizawa knew she'd never listen anyway.

"Watanabe's and their rule-breaking..." he muttered, taking a look at her worksheet.

His frown fell away and he was left with a blank stare. Aizawa had been proven a fool. His expectation for her to have been so low, perhaps he'd been wrong about her after all. The awful writing she had had, had been replaced with soft, neat writing instead. All it took was his reprimands and she changed it completely. A few words had changed her very own.